Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin
pays his respects at a memorial service for victims of a 1997
plane crash during his visit to Irkutsk, Friday, Feb. 18,
2000. Putin, tipped to win next month's presidential poll, hit
the campaign trail in Siberia on Friday, plugging his
favourite theme of a strong state and dropping in at a local
orphanage. (AP Photo/ Viktor Korotayev)

IRKUTSK, Russia –– Saying censorship has no place in a true
democracy, acting President Vladimir Putin on Friday called for reforms
including guarantees for private property and limitations on
parliamentary immunity from prosecution.

Although opinion polls show Putin widely favored to win the
presidency in March 26 elections, his stance on many issues has remained
vague since he took over when Boris Yeltsin resigned Dec. 31. He was
largely unknown among the public before becoming prime minister last
August.

His ascent has coincided with mounting pressure on newsrooms across
Russia, but Putin said Friday that "any censorship undermines a
democratic society," the Interfax news agency said.

Earlier, Putin said firm legal protection of property-owners' rights
was essential to the country's economic development.

"We should move away from the situation in which the state first
issues guarantees and then insists on revising them," Putin said
during a visit to Irkutsk, an industrial center in eastern Siberia.
"Without that, we will not be able to create a normal investment
climate in Russia."

Putin also said he favored limiting parliamentary immunity only to
the terms when lawmakers were in office. According to current law,
lawmakers cannot be prosecuted on charges predating their parliamentary
service, unless their fellow legislators vote to strip them of immunity.

The reform-oriented Union of Right Forces party had proposed a
referendum on those and other key issues. But the Central Electoral
Commission rejected the initiative on Thursday, saying the party had
failed to gather enough valid voter signatures backing the plebiscite.

"We can't do anything about that," Putin said. However, he
added that he "essentially" supported the referendum proposal.

Putin avoided a clear answer on another question the reformers had
hoped to put on the referendum, on limiting the president's powers in
dismissing the government.

Instead, Putin argued that only a strong presidency could guarantee
civil freedoms in Russia.

"We must create such a society and such forms of government that
would not stifle democracy. But there must be one distinct institution
to guarantee citizens' rights and freedoms, and only the institution of
the presidency can ensure that," he said.

Putin flew to Irkutsk, about 2,600 miles east of Moscow, on Thursday.
He met with regional officials and toured a children's home that
suffered in the 1997 crash of a military cargo plane. At least 69 people
were killed in the accident.

He called for more intense economic development in Siberia.

The region "holds more than three-quarters of mineral and other
resources in Russia, the main electric power production power and forest
resources. But its economic achievements remain very modest," Putin
told regional leaders. "The living standards here are worse than
those in the country as a whole."